Insulation displacement connectors (IDCs) and insulation displacement terminals (IDTs) used therein are generally known. IDCs are employed in circumstances in which it is desirable to rapidly make a connection with an insulated wire. During the connection of the IDT to the wire, opposed fingers of the IDT are slidably disposed over the wire and displace or remove the insulating coating or cover on the wire to permit direct electrical contact between the conductive IDT and the conductive wire. IDTs employed within typical IDCs have outer edges that include a barb that engage end walls of a terminal receiving slot to secure the terminal within a connector housing. Opposed fingers of the IDT are typically rigid. Consequently, the distance between the inner edges of fingers that engage the wire can only accommodate a very narrow range of wire sizes.
As are result of the stamping operation employed in the manufacture of typical IDTs, the corners of inner edges of the fingers are sharp and the opposing inner edges are uneven. The sharpened corners of the inner edge cut into the wire during the installation of the wire in an IDC and the uneven inner edges result in varying forces being applied by the edges to the wire along the inner edges. The structure of such inner edges in conventional IDTs can result in intermittent or unreliable connections between the IDT and the wire over time.
Moreover, temperature cycling or variations with typical IDCs can result in a varying resistance between the IDT and a wire disposed within the IDT as the pressure applied to the wire by interior terminal edges varies. Consequently, in IDCs carrying large currents, significant increases in heat can result in circumstances in which the resistance between the terminal and the wire increases.
It would therefore be desirable to have an IDT and IDC that accommodates a wider range of wire sizes than conventional IDTs and that is less susceptible to problems associated with temperature and dimensional variations than are observed with conventional IDCs and IDTs.